The invention generates relates to optical inspection and, more particularly, to an apparatus for inspecting defects or features of an object of interest.
Display devices such as liquid crystal display (LCD) devices are used for electronically displaying information including text, images and moving pictures. An LCD may include a number of layers such as polarized filter, glass substrate, color filter, liquid crystal and reflective surface, which may determine the quality of the LCD. To examine whether an LCD is a qualified one, that is, whether the LCD has defects less than a predetermined amount, human eye inspection may sometimes be employed. However, eye inspection may mean time-consuming, laborious and imprecise in the mass-production of LCDs. Moreover, with the advance in semiconductor manufacturing, it may become more difficult to examine LCD products with down-sized features by human eye inspection. Accordingly, inspection systems or apparatuses for automatic inspection of LCD panels have been developed. Nevertheless, some automatic scanning systems may not be able to identify defects of optical characteristics, which may not become visible or detectable unless viewed in a specific direction. Furthermore, during an inspection process, alien articles such as dirt or dust may be mistaken as defects. Moreover, it may be necessary to manually turn on a panel priot to inspection, which makes such scanning systems not so automatic.
It is therefore desirable to have an apparatus that is able to identify defects of optical characteristics and remove alien articles on a panel surface during inspection. Furthermore, it may also be desirable to have an apparatus that is able to supply power to a panel under inspection.